Housing Summit

On November 13-14, 2014, NCHV and our community partners gathered in New Orleans at the 2014 NCHV Veterans Access to Housing Summit. Expert panelists shared engagement strategies and outcomes from 25 Cities, Zero: 2016, the Mayor’s Initiative, and other coordinated local efforts to end veteran homelessness. The NCHV Housing Summit included several interactive workshops which allowed participants to:

New Orleans is nationally recognized for their extraordinary progress in alleviating homelessness. The city's efforts to end veteran homelessness show ingenuity, creativity and dedication. Over the past two years, veteran homelessness dropped 66 percent, a fact made all the more impressive given the city's spike in homelessness after Hurricane Katrina.

In summer 2014, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the City of New Orleans' drive to be the first city in the country to end all veteran homelessness by 2014. "The President sent out a clarion call that this is not who we are as a nation and that we need to come together as one people to make sure that all the veterans have what they need, from housing to health care to jobs," Mayor Landrieu said at a ceremony on the 4th of July. New Orleans has already shown this dedication as an active member of the VA's 25 Cities Initiative. This effort is an example of the success possible when a community merges ending veteran homelessness into its overall homelessness plan.

New Orleans provided the NCHV Housing Summit with fitting surroundings to discuss what is possible as we strive to ensure affordable housing access for all veterans experiencing homelessness. Representatives from New Orleans have been invited to share their strategies, victories and challenges with Summit attendees.

Who is NCHV?

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a 23-member board of directors – is the resource and technical assistance center for a national network of community-based service providers and local, state and federal agencies that provide emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans each year.

NCHV also serves as the primary liaison between the nation’s care providers, Congress and the Executive Branch agencies charged with helping them succeed in their work. NCHV's advocacy has strengthened and increased funding for virtually every federal homeless veteran assistance program in existence today.

Under a technical assistance grant awarded by the Department of Labor-Veterans' Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS), NCHV provides guidance and information about program development, administration, governance and funding to all of the nation’s homeless veteran service providers. This is achieved through conferences, personal consultations, publications, and this website – the nation’s most comprehensive information resource about homeless veterans and the programs that serve them.

The NCHV Central Office staff offers service providers assistance with administrative organization and program development; information about government, foundation and corporate grants; and guidance to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations. We operate a toll-free homeless veterans assistance phone line and a comprehensive website to direct those who need help to the people who can provide it.

NCHV was organized in 1990 by a small group of community-based service providers who were troubled by the disproportionately large percentage of homeless people who were veterans, and the lack of veteran-specific programs to help them. We opened our Washington, D.C., office in 1993 in order to work more closely with Congress and Executive Branch agencies to ensure the inclusion of veterans in federal assistance programs.

According to its own estimates, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs will reach slightly more than 40 percent of America’s homeless veterans. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans is the only national organization specifically dedicated to improving the opportunities for these deserving Americans to regain control of their lives and once again enjoy the freedoms they helped preserve. Our community-based service providers represent 46 states and the District of Columbia, and we offer assistance to any homeless service provider that contacts our office.

NCHV is recognized as the nation’s leading authority on homeless veterans issues by several agencies and departments of the U.S. government, and has worked in partnership on projects with VA, DOL, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. NCHV has helped develop and increase funding for homeless veteran-specific programs such as the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and the VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program, both of which are currently funded at their highest levels ever. We helped write and worked to ensure passage of the hallmark Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act of 2001, which had the potential to provide $1 billion for homeless veteran service providers and programs. In the current (111th) Congress, NCHV helped craft – and continues to advocate for – 14 bills designed to improve and expand services for homeless veterans.

Annual Conference

25 Years: Thank You for Your Service – This is our message to you, and the theme for the 2015 NCHV Annual Conference, which will be held May 27-29, 2015, at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. This year is NCHV’s 25th anniversary and we want to thank you, the NCHV members and partner agencies, for your work over the last 25 years.

This year is significant for all of us, and the Annual Conference will be your opportunity to connect to the expertise of past experience and the planning for the future. As we lead into the sunset of the Five-Year Plan to End Veteran Homelessness, we build upon a quarter century of knowledge to propel us into a new realm. At this year’s Conference, we will focus on how our past sets a foundation for the future of services for veterans experiencing and at-risk of homelessness. We will share successes and plan for the future.

Sharing Success: This Conference will focus on the momentum in local communities that are ending veteran homelessness. Come share your energy and experience in driving down veteran homelessness in your community. Learn from the experts across the service continuum who are making it happen.

Planning for the Future: Join us in building a plan beyond 2015 to ensure no veteran sleeps on our nation’s streets. This new sphere of services will be defined by prevention, rapid rehousing, increased efficiency, and creative adaptation to meet the emerging needs of homeless veterans in our communities.

We will continue to look to best practices from the field to send Conference attendees home better equipped to ensure no veteran must sleep on the street in their community. NCHV was founded to represent and serve homeless veteran service providers across the country, and it is your service we continue to honor and support.

Do you want to share what your community is doing to end veteran homelessness? Do you have a service structure in your community that has had a profound impact and is scalable to other communities? Apply to be a presenter at this year’s Annual conference! We are looking for innovative, impactful models grounded in research and experience.

Each year, NCHV honors the commitment and service of a few of the many deserving organizations and individuals helping homeless veterans across the nation. We are now accepting nominations for the following awards:

Outstanding Member - to an NCHV member organization whose programs, partnerships, and people combine to create extraordinary results

Partnership Award - to an organization or individual whose work building effective partnerships exemplifies creativity and collaboration

Public Policy Award - to an elected official whose record shows strong commitment and action in measures to help homeless veterans

Department of Veterans Affairs Staff Award - to a Department of Veterans Affairs staff member who exhibits extraordinary commitment to homeless veterans and service providers

Department of Labor Staff Award - to a Department of Labor staff member who exhibits extraordinary commitment to homeless veterans and service providers

Please submit a one- to two-page letter of nomination including the nominee's name, title, and which award you are nominating for by email to rbrown@nchv.org no later than April 20, 2015.

Exhibitor Information

We will be featuring centrally located exhibitor space at the 2015 NCHV Annual Conference, and interested parties can expect attendance to be at capacity. Exhibitor space is limited so apply early! Download the exhibitor registration form.

In nearly every community across the country, the resources exist to end veteran homelessness. However, having every puzzle piece does not mean the full picture has been completed. We must connect the pieces and, where pieces are still missing, push for targeted and immediate action.

This connectivity and action must be informed and strategic if we are to achieve the objective of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015. In May, you were a part of the country’s premiere forum for engaging in this strategic dialogue: the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans’ Annual Conference.

The 2014 NCHV Annual Conference, themed "Bridging the Gap," was a two-and-a-half-day intensive training event with over 30 unique workshops and over 80 expert panelists from government, research, and the service provider community. The Conference included several opportunities for attendees, including a networking lunch and awards banquet to honor the hundreds of peers from across the country who are actively involved in ending homelessness among veterans.

For communities where sufficient resources exist, the Conference provided instruction on how to convert housing, speak the language of mainstream medical and supportive service providers, and decrease the time it takes for a veteran to move from on the streets to stably housed. Those communities lacking in sufficient resources learned about new targeted initiatives across several Federal agencies, methods for improving local data collection to ensure adequate resource allocations, and prevention best practices. The NCHV Policy Session provided resources and guidance for successfully engaging Members of Congress. These were only of a few of the training topics at the Conference.

Now is the time to continue helping your local community to connect the pieces and bridge the gap between where you are and how you define success in your community. As VA Secretary Shinseki stated at the 2013 NCHV Annual Conference: “We've given ourselves two more years to do this, and in the words of the U.S. Cavalry, we're burning daylight. There is work to be done; let's get on with it.”

Each year, NCHV honors the commitment and service of a few of the many deserving organizations and individuals helping homeless veterans across the nation. The following NCHV Annual Awards were presented May 29 at the NCHV Annual Awards Banquet at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

Jerald Washington Memorial Founders’ Award

The Home Depot and The Home Depot Foundation – For launching the Veterans Initiative, a three-year, $30 million grant program to help community organizations create affordable housing for homeless and at-risk veterans and their families. The Veterans Initiative was soon increased to a five-year, $80 million grant program.

Together, the Home Depot and The Home Depot Foundation have created more than 10,000 housing units for clients of NCHV associates, more than 11% of the total number of housing units envisioned in the original VA Five-Year Plan to End Veteran Homelessness. It is the single greatest corporate contribution in the history of the homeless veteran assistance movement.

Announced during the 2013 NCHV Annual Conference, the Peter Dougherty Award honors its namesake – the personal advisor on homeless veterans for seven Secretaries of Veterans Affairs, one of the principal authors of the Five-Year Plan to End Veteran Homelessness, and the man who introduced The Home Depot Foundation to NCHV for the Veterans Initiative.

Four organizations advanced to the final round of consideration for the 2014 Peter Dougherty Award, with a $50,000 grant for the Grand Prize winner and a $10,000 grant for the first runner-up.

$50,000 Grant Winner - Community Hope Inc., Parsippany, NJ, for Valley Brooke Village. An Enhanced-Use Lease project built on a 16-acre parcel of surplus federal property in Basking Ridge, NJ, Valley Brooke provides 62 units of permanent supportive housing for veterans with combat-related TBI, post-traumatic stress, and physical disabilities. Up to another 50 units are currently under development. The community serves two VA Medical Centers – Lyons and Orange – and residents include veteran couples and families with children. Residents have immediate access to VA health services 24/7, and on-site supportive services are available to help veterans set and meet their own goals for self-determination and self-sufficiency, including job coaches. Project funding included support from Peabody Properties, National Equity Fund, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Metlife, and a Community Development Block Grant from Somerset County, NJ.

$10,000 Grant Winner - Swords to Plowshares, San Francisco, for Veterans Commons. Providing studio units for 75 single formerly homeless veterans with chronic and disabling conditions. The historic building includes office space for co-located clinical and social services; on-site VASH case management, Representative Payee and Money Management programs to ensure housing stability; 100% ADA adaptable units; and amenities that promote a sense of community for formerly homeless veterans.

Finalist - Veteran Homestead of Fitchburg, MA, for the Northeast Veteran Training and Rehabilitation Center in Gardner, MA. This is the nation’s first intensive treatment and therapeutic residential facility for veterans with disabilities and serious mental illness that includes capacity for immediate family members – services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, education and training opportunities, counseling and a wide range of other supportive and family assistance services.

Finalist - Tampa Crossroads of Tampa, FL, for Eco-Oaks, a model affordable housing community for women veterans with children and low-income families. The building was formerly a construction company in foreclosure, but has been transformed into an 18-unit apartment community complete with a central courtyard safe for a children’s play area. The project comes with sustainable energy-conservation features including rain barrels that hold more than 4,500 gallons of water, solar energy panels, energy efficient appliances and low-flow toilets. If an average power bill for a two-bedroom apartment in the area runs about $140 a month, the bill for one of these apartments runs about $35. The project was made possible with $3 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding.

Thomas Wynn, Sr. Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement

Shaun Donovan, Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development – In President Obama’s FY 2015 budget request to Congress, there is a call for $75 million for an additional allocation of Section 8 vouchers for the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. If approved, the most critical housing program in the national campaign to end veteran homelessness will reach a total of nearly 80,000 VASH vouchers, a full 33% more than originally envisioned in the VA Five-Year Plan.

Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan deserves much of the credit for this historic accomplishment; his leadership has made it possible to virtually eliminate chronic veteran homelessness in the United States in the span of less than five years.

Donovan has a long history of working to provide affordable housing to American families. He previously served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He implemented the department’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, creating 165,000 units of housing, the largest affordable housing plan in U.S. history.

He also helped develop the New York City Acquisition Fund, working with foundations and banks to finance affordable housing, an innovative metropolitan zoning program, one of the nation’s largest supportive housing plans, and one of the earliest response programs to the nation’s foreclosure crisis.